Geminid Meteor Shower TONIGHT (video)

Space.com; Crystal Quintero, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

If it's clear outside tonight (Wednesday, Dec. 13th) and Thursday morning (Dec. 14th) before dawn, be sure to go outdoors.

 

One of the year's top meteor showers, the Geminids, will peak, with rates as high as one or two meteors per minute at around 10:00 pm your local time (wherever you're observing from). However, the show will start around 7:00 pm local time, according to the magazine Sky & Telescope.

What's up there? Why don't the space-devas make themselves known when they visit?

 

US Navy's Secret Space Program

But if you can't make it out, or if skies are gloomy, you can also watch a Geminids webcast here on Space.com courtesy of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama starting at about 6:00 pm EST (2300 GMT) on Dec. 13th.

The Virtual Telescope Project will also host a webcast here showing live views from Italy, starting at 5 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT) on Dec. 13, and Arizona, starting at 5:00 am (1000 GMT) on Dec. 14.

 

The Slooh online observatory will also host a webcast at Slooh.com beginning at 9:00 pm EST (0200 GMT) for members who have registered with the site (registration is free).

 

"The Geminids are usually one of the two best meteor showers of the year," Alan MacRobert, senior editor at Sky & Telescope, said in a statement. "Sometimes, they're more impressive than the better-known Perseids... More + VIDEO